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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Controversy surrounds the University of Denver as it prepares to honor on Aug. 30 a former CEO of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation, a company accused of human rights abuses and environmental detriment. At the Korbel dinner, the annual fundraising event to benefit the Graduate School for International Studies, Wayne Murdy will receive the International Bridge Builder's Award, an honor bestowed upon those who establish relationships between Colorado and the international community.
"Wayne Murdy and the corporation that he runs - Newmont Mining - are known as being some of the biggest corporate criminals in the world," said Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizing member of the group Stop Newmont Mining. "They constantly engage in human-rights violations and environmental destruction."
At Newmont Mining, the sentiment is different.
"Naturally we feel very good about it," said Omar Jabara, spokesman for Newmont Mining. Under Murdy's leadership Newmont became, at one point, the largest gold-mining company in the world and established most of its global operations; the company has mines in places such as Indonesia, Peru and Ghana. "It's pretty unique for a corporation in Denver to have operations all over the world," Jabara said.
One of the most glaring examples of Newmont's violations, Spagnuolo said, comes from the Yanacocha Gold Mine in Peru, the largest gold mining operation in the world and home of Yanacocha Mountain, a site considered sacred to Peruvians.
"They use what's called cyanide heap leach mining," Spagnuolo said. Cyanide heap leach mining involves irrigating crushed gold ore with cyanide to percolate gold out of the ore. The process can take several weeks to complete.
While the cyanide Newmont uses is segregated from the surrounding earth with liners, "sometimes those liners leak," he said. "They're taking away one of their sacred sites." Spagnuolo also recalled a mercury spill on a public road in Peru. Newmont didn't clean up the spill for days, he said. Locals collected some of the shining mercury, which they mistook for gold, poisoning them.
A contractor who was transporting the mercury, a byproduct of gold production, was in an accident, Jabara said.
"We accepted responsibility for it right away," he said. Newmont has not actually compensated the victims of the spill yet, because the process is in arbitration. "It's in the arbitrator's hands to find the amount," he said.
"Naturally we're going to have impacts, but our job is to have collaboration ... to ensure we do it the right way," Jabara said. Because of Newmont, programs for flood protection have helped Indonesian farmers and a potable water program was established in Peru, he said. "The areas in which we operate tend to be very remote, poor areas.
"Not everybody can work being a computer programmer ... economies have to start somewhere. Mining provides that kick start."
Some who live near the mine don't agree.
"Now we can see the natural pastures have been destroyed, the wool of our animals is peeling, and the water is dirty. There is so much poverty here, and when Yanacocha says we are better now, better than before, it is all lies," said Eriberto Ventura Castrejon, a farmer quoted on www.nodirtygold.com.
The University of Denver defended selecting Murdy for the award.
"He's been instilling the idea of social responsibility in his company for years," said Jim Berscheidt, a spokesman for the university. The Bridge Builder's Award is "given to someone who made connections, reached out from Denver to the rest of the world.
"This is going to him. It's not going to the company per se," he said.
The international human rights group Oxfam America issued a statement July 30 calling for Newmont to address allegations of human rights abuses at the Yanacocha mine. Most of the allegations concern the private security firm FORZA, which Newmont hired to protect the mine.
"Newmont saw more trouble at the Yanacocha mine last month when villagers from the community of Totorcocha entered Yanacocha," read a press release from Oxfam. "They were forcibly evicted by FORZA agents; 13 people were detained and brought to the local police station, several people were injured."
Two people working for an organization to protest the mine's effects on local communities were spied on and received death threats, Oxfam stated. The perpetrators, they continued, had ties to FORZA.
"The allegations brought forth by Oxfam are being processed," Jabara said. "We will offer our findings ... We're taking the allegations seriously." About Newmont's responsibility for FORZA's actions, "It's not a Newmont company," he said.
Newmont has been subjected to unmerited allegations in the past, Jabara said.
"As a large entity, we're also a large target." In one instance, an Indonesian court acquitted the company against charges that claimed one of its mines polluted a bay with mercury and arsenic, killing marine life and poisoning residents, he said.
The mining company has also been accused of violating U.S.-Shoshone treaty rights on tribal land.
"They have mining operations on that land that are illegal," Spagnuolo said. Carrie Dann, a Shoshone grandmother has asked Newmont to cease its operations on their land, but to no avail, Spagnuolo said. "To people like Carrie Dann, it's saying that their land, their way of life is insignificant."
Newmont counters that the land on which they operate belongs to the federal government.
"This is a sticky issue ... it's not for Newmont to decide what land belongs to the federal government," Jabara said. "The Shoshone ... their grievance is with the federal government."
"To watch DU give this man an award ... it almost being as guilty as Wayne Murdy," Spagnuolo said. "I think they (DU) should change their mission statement."
Indicating resistance by Stop Newmont Mining to Murdy's reception of the award, "He thinks he can come to Denver and hide his record ... We want to make Wayne Murdy as nervous in his own community as he makes people feel in their communities when he shows up."
The dinner will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Denver Marriot City Center.
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